Swine or not, flu season takes its toll in Turkey this winter

Particularly at the beginning of the flu season, when swine flu paranoia was at its peak, many schools throughout the nation were forced to give students vacations for up to a week in the face of absence rates soaring up to 20-30 percent higher than normal in some areas as parents kept their children home over fears they would be infected with the virus.

At workplaces across the country, the losses in productivity were significant, İstanbul University Medical School virology and immunology faculty member Dr. Selim Badur told Sunday’s Zaman. Noting that in recent years, even before the swine flu panic, there had been an increased influence of the flu season on loss of productivity at workplaces, he said: “The productivity loss attributable to the flu has fluctuated between the equivalent of 1.5 and 4.9 full workdays. This loss creates tremendous costs for society as a whole.”

Even after employees have returned to work following a bout of the flu, it takes another one to two weeks for them to return to normal performance levels, as their efficiency has fallen by up to 80 percent, the doctor said. “Workplace productivity loss is also created when employees’ children become ill, forcing them to stay at home and care for them. This combined with the prolonged loss of productivity when an employee becomes ill really creates quite a cost for society,” Badur said, noting that in the face of the hyped-up swine flu virus, many workplaces had for the first time instituted seasonal precautions to minimize the spread of illness and therefore also done a small part toward reducing the flu’s overall effects on productivity and economic loss.

Swine flu racked up corporate expenses

According to research recently released by the Turkey Personnel Administration Association (PERYÖN), on average seven people employed at each firm in Turkey contracted the swine flu. The study, conducted by TNS Turkey between Dec. 17, 2009 and Jan. 7, 2010, also suggested that 20 percent of Turkish firms felt the sting of the swine flu in terms of workflow and workplace efficiency, with 41 percent of company administrators concerned that in the future the flu would harm them even more.

In particular, large firms took a blow to their expense ledgers with precautionary measures to prevent workplace outbreaks of the flu, bringing in doctors to provide seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccinations, distributing hand sanitizer, increasing the frequency of premises cleaning and disinfection, distributing masks, providing educational seminars, organizing info sessions aimed toward families and also giving paid leave to those with the flu and those with signs that they might come down with it.

Three in five Turkish firms created an emergency communications plan to ensure that their work would continue in the face of a serious epidemic during this flu season, the PERYÖN research also revealed.